here's what claire mccaskill had to skay. >> i feel sorry for john boehner. he has to deal with the base of the republican party that grover norquist represents. i met him for the first time this morning. nice to meet him. who is he? why is he this guy that has captured so much attention in this? >> so why is he? do you think he's still relevant? >> well, he is, but back to what the congresswoman was saying a little bit earlier, does john boehner have control of his caucus. is he leading his caucus or is his caucus leading him. the reason why you're hearing congressional leaders say they won't negotiate in public because some of these outside external figures do still have some power but they want to keep them at bay as much as possible and so even though we're hearing john boner and harry reid say they are far away from a deal that may not be true because they are negotiating behind closed doors. press conference after press conference we're seeing the market swing back and forth but really i think we may be closer to a deal by the end of the month than thes